OK, it was the Fourth of July yesterday, so while we normally don't post a lot of political blogs here, we'll make an exception this week, to honor the ideals this country was founded on. Our fireworks plan has varied wildly over the years, veering from a "Try and see 'em all" approach, which involved riding our motorcycle into the Berkeley Hills, "Try and see 'em at all" approach, which meant trying to find a spot of grass and a break in the fog to see them at Fisherman's Wharf, and the "Pretend you saw 'em" approach, which involved the TV. Until we really get a good subwoofer, it's not the same thing.

In other news, let's bid a fond farewell to A Clean, Well-Lighted Place For Books, but also rejoice in the fact that a new bookstore will be setting up shop there. There is further hope in this post. All is not lost.

We used to brag that our father printed our birth announcements on the first printer that was small enough to take home (which meant it was still about as big as a filing cabinet). We now officially renounce this street cred and give it over to Dav, who coded one helluva way to welcome his child into the world. We signed up just to be a part of it.

We admit, sometimes we feel a little, shall we say, shackled, by the first person plural style guide here in the -ist universe. When it feels a little twee, sometimes we want to inject the snark with a little earnestness, just to make it interesting, because we do, by all accounts, want to be interesting. To that end, here are some posts that were interesting this week. Maisnon talks teeth. Rangelife has some posts about what looks like a bobcat and fish guts, and Jacynth takes us out to the ballgame.

Lastly, please, please, please give it up for Jane, who just finished her dissertation. Frickin' sweet.

The pic is of the walls of the De Young is GGPark as they oxidize, gratefully lifted from And The Family Buick, because we thought it was a cool pic.